Thursday, May 7, 2020

Smiths Gully Band "About Time" LP 1981

Another offering fromTassie Ian that I had overlooked before. Many thanks Ian.
I have been absent for a while with continuing health issues so I apologise for my lack of activity. Now with winter and the Covid19 isolation, I will be attempting to put up some more music.
This album is a somewhat eclectic grouping of songs and instrumental tracks. Some of the songs have been penned by members of the band but they are definitely in a folky style and quite enjoyable.
The album is obviously not a sophisticated production but I do not find that much of an issue other than the vocals are sometimes a little overwhelmed by the instrumentation.
I was surprised and delighted to discern the inclusion of a french horn in the instrumentation. It worked well.

The members of the band, pictured here at Smiths Gully Cemetery are:-
Norm Adams on fiddle;
Raynor Balfour on mandolin, flute, tin whistle, accordian, piano, abd 5 string banjo;
Keith O.Lawrie - guitar and vocals
John Rasmussen - guitars 6 and 12 string, 5 string banjo and vocals;
Marshall Webb - bodhran, concertina, lagerphone, and fence paling.; and
Bill Gallicher - band mixer and knob twiddler.

AND with some help from friends Belinda Cody, Butterfly Bertram and Alex Grieve with vocals, snare drum, washboard and french horn.

Tracklist:-
1, The old grey goose (instrumental)
2, Fitzroy St Lady (Rasmussen)V (Fitzroy St, ST Kilda)
3. Davey Douglas (Lawrie)
4. Instrumental medley - musical priest, Bob Caseys, and trim the velvet.
5.The back  blocks shearer.
6. Bakery Hill (Rasmussen)
7. The Road to Lisdoonvarna*
8. Lonegans widow (Silverstein)
9. Hello Stranger (Lawrie)

* Liner notes doubt the existence of Lisdoonvarna. It is a small town in County Clare which used to host a music festival about which Christy Moore wrote the song "Lisdoonvarna".

The album and its graphics have been incorporated into ZIP files which should be decompressed before playing.

Click here to begin downloading the MP3 (256) version ZIP file - 45MB

Click here to begin downloading the FLAC (lossless) version ZIP file - 145MB

Any problems:- contact me mr.stockman@gmail.com

1 comment:

  1. Good to see you're back Paul. This album is hard to find,so thanks for the rip.

    ReplyDelete